Color and Time
by Xannytoes
Summary: Broken and lost at the end of everything, Ash remembers how to see the world once more. Advanceshipping. Ash x May. Sato x Haru.


**Xannytoes:** I MADE IT JUST IN TIME!

Phew, hello there ladies and gentlemen. HAPPY ADVANCESHIPPING DAY! Another year has passed, the seasons have changed, Christmas is almost upon us and Ash and May still aren't canon yet. Sigh. Maybe next year? But yes, I'd like to present my little contribution. A bit of sporadic, chaotic writing which I came up with on the spur of the moment. Inspired greatly by copious amounts of Your Lie in April (no spoilers pls) and covers by LeeandLie, I present to you Color and Time. Enjoy :)

I don't own Pokémon, but I will. Someday...

* * *

This was the end.

Ash Ketchum was neither dead nor alive, though lurking between the two realms. Walking a tightrope, threatening to tumble either left or right, escaping one fate and befalling another. Teetering on the edge of destiny…

And by Arceus, did it hurt.

What was it that he had accomplished again? The thought, the memories, the recollections of a great battle lurked just out of reach. It might have happened a few minutes prior, or it may have been several years since he experienced such an event. The passage of time was so hard to register, considering current circumstances.

His eyes, tired and threatening to shut forevermore, studied the colorless landscape. Scorched earth, darkened skies and the smell of injury smacked against his senses. Such diverse details had faded from view, leaving blurry splotches upon his vision. The only noteworthy sight was a single rose petal, a fragile ruby carried upon a non-existent wind.

What was it that had happened here? He yearned for an explanation, a solution to the question ringing his mind. Who? What? Where? Why? Why? Why? Why had such devastation occurred? Why was he here? Had he been responsible? Was he the harbinger of such great destruction, of such beautiful chaos?

Sapphire liquid pricked his irises, blinding whatever sight he had left at his disposition.

Ah, the hurt. The soon to be scars. The markings of war. It came in titanic waves, like balls of magma smacking against a concrete wall. Leaving cracks. Always cracks. Then tears. Tears that would rip everything asunder. How long would it be until he was torn to pieces? Again, he couldn't tell the time anymore.

Strange… this pain was different. It did not feel like the burns of Thunder, nor the stings of Slash. It was longing. Longing for something. Longing for pain? No, not exactly. Longing for something. Something that was pain, but at the same time wasn't.

An absence. There was something missing in a heart which threatened to beat its last note or restart its symphony. The choice his fragile form would make was not yet clear, but it was fast approaching. The conclusion to the event which had shattered his world. In more ways than one.

A whisper. A quiet tune on the edge of his mind. Resonating. Murky at first, but clearing with the parting of background noise. A call of his lost thoughts. Opening the path to what he'd been seeking. What he'd forgotten, but hoped to find once more.

And there it was.

It was only there for a moment. Like a stone crashing into water, a pulse cascading outwards. Giving him all the answers, all the pieces of an empty puzzle box. It was there. Fitted together at long last. For a single moment, there was no more wondering. No more questioning. No more maybes.

Just May.

Of course he'd done something so reckless, so stupid, so mindlessly brain dead, just for her. Or maybe it hadn't been so reckless, so stupid, so mindlessly brain dead. The details were still a little fuzzy. Either way, he hoped that it had been heroic. Film-worthy even.

There was darkness now, but there was also a light. And color. Lots of colors. Reds and blues and greens. All flooding back into his life at the moment he needed them most.

Perhaps residing in this mortal coil, for just a little bit longer, wasn't such a bad thing. Deciding to forget all the agonies of both body and spirit, Ash stood up once again. Ready for one last voyage into uncertainty. Ready to fight future battles to protect that which he considered dear.

 _Once I saw her, everything I saw, everything I heard, everything I felt, all the scenery around me started to take on color._

He'd found Her. And like that fragile ruby, they were carried away together.


End file.
